Genetic characterization of Aberdeen Angus cattle using molecular markers

Abstract

Aberdeen Angus beef cattle from the Brazilian herd were studied genetically using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the κ-casein -HinfI (CSN3 -HinfI), β-lactoglobulin -HaeIII (LGB -HaeIII) and growth hormone AluI (GH-AluI) genes, as well as four microsatellites (TEXAN15, CSFM50, BM1224 and BM7160). The RFLP genotypes were determined using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by digestion with restriction endonucleases and electrophoresis in agarose gels. With the exception of the microsatellite BM7160, which was analyzed in an automatic sequencer, the PCR products were genotyped by silver staining. The allele and genotype frequencies, heterozygosities and gene diversity were estimated. The values for these parameters of variability were comparable to other cattle breeds. The genetic relationship of the Aberdeen Angus to other breeds (Caracu, Canchim, Charolais, Guzerath, Gyr, Nelore, Santa Gertrudis and Simmental) was investigated using Nei's genetic distance. Cluster analysis placed the Aberdeen Angus in an isolated group in the Bos taurus breeds branch. This fact is in agreement with the geographic origin of this breed.

Growth and carcass traits associated with GH1/Alu I and POU1F1/Hinf I gene polymorphisms in Zebu and crossbred beef cattle

“…In our study, the L allele frequencies obtained were similar to results reported in the literature which showed a fixation of this allele in Zebu breeds (Kemenes et al, 1999) and its predominance in the taurine breeds Charolais (Kemenes et al, 1999), Piedmontese (Di Stasio et al, 2002), Simmental and Angus (Vasconcellos et al, 2003), with frequencies of 0.72, 0.72, 0.82 and 0.77, respectively. Silveira (2002) obtained a frequency of 0.91 for the L allele in the synthetic Canchim breed.…”

Effects of CSN3 and LGB gene polymorphisms on production traits in beef cattle

“…found a frequency of 0.67 for the A allele in animals of the Canchim breed. In addition, these and other studies have shown higher frequencies of allele A compared to allele B in both taurine (Ron et al, 1994;Moody et al, 1996;Vasconcellos et al, 2003) and Zebu breeds (Mitra et al, 1998;Kemenes et al, 1999;, regardless of whether dairy or beef cattle were studied. This finding indicates that differences in the selection criteria for milk or meat production in these breeds do not favor different alleles of this polymorphism.…”

“…This variation in the results might be explained by different selection criteria applied to the herds, or by differences in the allele frequencies between base populations. Regitano et al (1999Regitano et al ( , 2000 and Vasconcellos et al (2003) observed frequencies of 0.40, 0.46 and 0.17 for allele A in Canchim, Simmental and Angus breeds, respectively. In other studies, the frequency of the A allele of the β-lactoglobulin polymorphism was 0.43 and 0.39 in the dairy taurine breeds Holstein and Brown Swiss, respectively (Van Eenennaan and Medrano, 1991), and 0.37 in the Zebu GirGir breed (Kemenes et al, 1999).…”

Molecular identification of livestock breeds: a tool for modern conservation biology

“…The main molecular technique used for most livestock genetic characterisation was microsatellite markers, for example they were was used in; Spanish native cattle breeds (Martín-Burriel, García-Muro & Zaragoza, 1999), Aberdeen Angus cattle breeds (Vasconcellos, Tambasco-Talhari, Pereira et al, 2003), Austrian sheep breeds (Baumung, Cubric-Curik, Schwend et al, 2006) and indigenous goats in sub-Saharan Africa (Chenyambuga, Hanotte, Hirbo et al, 2004). Although highly informative, the current panels of microsatellites used for analyses are not capable of elucidating all the information required regarding breed variation in livestock (Toro et al, 2009).…”